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The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently denied Apple’s request for a trademark on the term ‘iPad mini,” finding that the “mini” portion of the name according to them is just “merely descriptive” of goods or services available in miniature forms. The decision came in the form of a letter to Apple, in which the application reviewer refused registration of the trademark.

The Cupertino California company filed a trademark application for the iPad mini name shortly after it launched the device last year. According to TechCrunch, the refusal letter was mailed to Apple on January 24 but only made public in the last few days. The reviewer noted that the term “MINI” in the applied for mark is also descriptive of a feature of applicant’s product. Specifically, the attached evidence shows this wording means “something that is distinctly smaller than other members of its type or class.”

In addition to the explanation, the reviewer also attaches multiple examples pulled from the Internet of a range of products marketed with the term “mini” attached to their names in some fashion. The commonness of the term, the reviewer argues, means that Apples use of the term signifies only “a small sized handheld tablet computer” and doesn’t constitute a “unitary mark with a unique, incongruous, or otherwise non-descriptive meaning in relation to the goods and/or services.” The letter also provided additional grounds for refusal of the application by stating the following:

A web catalog or web page specimen is not acceptable to show trademark use as a display associated with the goods because it fails to include a picture or a sufficient textual description of the goods in sufficiently close proximity to the necessary ordering information.

Apple had submitted the iPad mini trademark application with images from its product webpages. The folks over at Patently Apple noted that Apple commonly does so when submitting applications and the USPTO does not seem to explain how this case is any different. Fortunately for Apple, the company has already secured a trademark on “iPad” in the United States and in multiple other countries around the world. The company can still amend its application for a trademark provided that it can prove that “a portion of the mark has acquired distinctiveness.” The Cupertino California company has until July 24 to better explain how “iPad mini” is sufficiently different from the larger-sized iPad to merit its own trademark. We’ll have to see if they can wait and pull it off.

Wait, mini NO but rectangles with rounded edges similar to the same ones the almighty etched the 10 commandments onYES? The USPTO is a joke! What are the qualifications to be a reviewer? Is there a school? A required degree? Do you need to be an expert in the field that the patent pertains to?

I'm sure they wanted to patent this before Samsung releases their galaxy S4 mini. Samsung is dumb if they use that term. It would just confirm even more that they copy Apple.

Do you really believe Apple was the first to use the term "mini" as part of a product's name? Do you really think that any single company owns or can own such a general term like "mini" ? This is no different then the 200 or so cars that have the word "turbo" or "convertible" or some random combination letters ("XL" "ST", "ZX", ...), etc, added to their name. Maybe you should try to think things through before committing a post next time.

According to Patently Apple, the letter was mailed to Apple on January 24, but has only been made public the last few days arguing that the term 'mini' is 'merely descriptive.'

The 'iPad mini' has been denied by Examining Attorney Lee-Anne Berns claiming that the specimen that Apple supplied - the product website - shouldn't have been used, even though Apple has used this previously without denial.

Apple were granted the trademark for 'iPad' in March 2012 in the U.S. and reached a $60 million settlement later in the year for use in China.